Saratoga
by Parodoxical Shift
Summary: In 1777, William Turner is sent to fight in the Revolutionary War, leaving Elizabeth behind. Can Will survive the harsh conditions of the British Army? Will he be able to come out-unharmed? AU, mainly Willabeth pairings, angst, maybe some torture as well.
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1: Default Chapter

**A/N****: I have absolutely no military experience whatsoever, so please excuse any of my extremely stupid mistakes.**

_Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is Disney's. Anything else is mine. I am not making any profit whatsoever with this story. I am writing for purely entertainment reasons .Got it?_

The sun shone brightly through the window, casting the light all around the room. In the corner, a small dog stirred, blinking open its large black eyes. It whined softly, as if it was complaining about the brightness of the sun.

Slowly accepting the fact that the light wouldn't go away, the small tan dog pounced onto the bed. It pranced around on the covers, sniffing the edges of the bed.

"Bad girl. You're not 'llowed on the bed." Elizabeth Swann opened her eyes sleepily, scolding the fuzzy shape before her.

The dog whimpered, climbing next to her in the bed. "Sapphire, get off." The dog didn't move. "Sapphire…" she warned. "Don't make me force you off."

Reluctantly, the little tan dog jumped off the bed, and padded toward her own little sleeping area. Elizabeth smiled at the cocker spaniel puppy. It had been a gift from her father on her 23rd birthday. Now that she came to think about it, most of the items in her house were gifts from her father. In fact, the house itself was a wedding present, when she married Will.

Soon after Port Royal had been hit by a hurricane, her father had brought her with him back to England. Will had to buy his own passage; he arrived later. Soon after they got married, Will had enlisted into the army. Elizabeth hoped that her husband wouldn't have to join, that England had enough soldiers to fight in the Revolution.

And that brought her to another point. She hated wars; it was all about people killing each other for money and property. There was no point, she decided. Elizabeth loved risks; she had always been interested in pirates as a young girl, driving her father to the point of insanity. But wars were a different matter; there was too much risk involved. Starting a war was an invitation for someone to kill you. She had always hoped that she could avoid wars entirely in her lifetime.

But then, the American colonies decided to revolt. Hundreds of men were sent to fight, to risk their lives. Elizabeth hated that. She hated how the men were brutally torn away from their family. _Hopefully, Will won't be one of them_, she thought. Deep in her heart, she knew that her husband would have to journey to the colonies sometime, to fight. Elizabeth just hoped it wouldn't be soon.

A knock on the door interrupted her train of thought. Beside her, Will stirred. Quickly, she slipped into her clothes, and hurried downstairs to the door.

On the doorstep, there stood an important-looking man with a scroll. "Is this the house of one William Turner?" he inquired pompously.

"Yes," Elizabeth replied, unsure of what this man wanted.

"Ah," he acknowledged. "You are his wife, I presume?"

Elizabeth nodded. "What do you want?"

The man looked slightly stunned at this harsh statement. "So sorry to make the point so abrupt, but since you insisted, your husband is needed in the army. He must report to the general immediately."

It was Elizabeth's turn to look stunned. "Pardon me?" she asked, sure that she misheard. Will couldn't be taken away now, could he?

The man looked flustered. "This is the estate of one William Turner, is it not?"

Elizabeth nodded slowly.

"Your husband did sign up for enlistment, did he not?"

Elizabeth nodded again.

"Well then," the man continued, looking slightly relieved, "his service to his country is needed right now. Good day to you, madam." And with that, the man turned and strutted to his carriage.

Closing the door, Elizabeth tried to digest what had just happened. _Oh my god, Will's going to fight_. She stumbled to the table, and put her head down on her arms.

"Elizabeth?"

Startled, Elizabeth jerked her head up. Will was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking worriedly at his distressed wife. He was dressed in a puffy-sleeved white shirt and a simple brown jerkin, with his long hair tied back. "Oh, Will," Elizabeth whispered. "They're going to send you to the colonies." With that came the world came crashing down around Elizabeth. Her Will was going to fight! He could be injured, or captured; or - Elizabeth didn't like trying to dodge reality, no matter how harsh it proved to be - killed. With that realization, she broke down.

Immediately, her husband was at her side, stroking her long blonde hair. "It's going to be all right, Elizabeth," he whispered soothingly into her ear. But both of them couldn't help wondering: would it be all right?

**A/N****: YAY! First chapter done. Whaddya think? Sucks, doesn't it? I hate romance scenes, but this one was kind of necessary. For all of you that are wondering, yeah, Will's going to get injured. But that's sort of inevitable, isn't it? If someone's going to go into battle, they would have to get captured, injured, or killed. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a good storyline.**


	2. New Beginnings

Chapter 2

**A/N****: Once again, I have no military experience. I'm more experienced about the Revolutionary War than the military. If anything is inaccurate about this story, please help me learn, or just ignore it. I checked on several websites for whatever facts I have included in this story. On another note, thank you to everyone who reviewed! If anyone needs something to be cleared up, Elizabeth and Will met Jack before, somewhere else. I'm not going into the details in this story.**

_Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own anything that you recognize. Whatever._

Sometimes, life wasn't worth living. And other times, it was.

Will was having one of the days that weren't worth living. The British army had just struggled across the Hudson, and now, Burgoyne was at a complete loss at where the rebel army was located, how they could plan a successful attack, and lastly, no one had any idea of what to do. The army was in a half-chaotic state, without any form of guidance. _Should have told us that they might not have a plan when we joined_, Will thought bitterly.

Ever since August, things had been going downhill. After a celebrated victory at Ticonderoga, the army had marched south, overland via Fort Anne and Fort Edward. The journey was much harder than anyone had expected it to be; the thick forests of the Americas proved tough and unyielding to the British army. Large felled trees always seemed to cut into their path. Easier routes had been blockaded by some previous traveler through the dense foliage. Tempers ran short; almost everyday, more men suspected the Americans were making the path even more difficult then it was originally, and frequent curses were heard.

By the time they reached the Hudson River, tempers were strained to the point of snapping, and the supplies were running out. Piled onto this was the news that General Howe had decided to try and invade Philadelphia instead, and St. Leger's group had been forced to retreat, leaving Burgoyne's army alone to fight the Americans. If only Howe hadn't changed plans and Leger hadn't been attacked, Will thought that they might've already defeated the Americans. Or at least, they would have some idea were the encampment was.

* * *

Back in England, Elizabeth was plotting. Seeing as Will had been forced to leave her, Elizabeth decided that she would go to Will instead. All she had to do was get away from the prying eyes of her father, and secure passage to the Americas.

The former proved to be rather easy. Because of his high position in society, Elizabeth's father was called away to help with the situation in London. He couldn't come home very often, and left Elizabeth fairly alone. The maids were easy enough to deter as well; a well-thought-out lie was all the persuasion the young women needed.

The latter turned out to be harder to accomplish. Most ships were sent to help with the British Navy fleet in the Americas; not many were left behind in England. Occasionally, a ship would come back, only to be reloaded with supplies and sent out again. There were no ships in the port today, though. Elizabeth cursed herself for not checking the ships available before deciding to run off.

"Lookin' for sumthin', luv?"

Elizabeth whirled around. Standing behind her was a heavily decorated, darker-skinned, familiar looking young man. His dark hair was braided into dreadlocks, with random ornament dangling from them. Swaggering slightly, he walked closer to Elizabeth.

"Jack Sparrow?" Elizabeth exclaimed in disbelief.

"That's _Captain_ Jack Sparrow, if you will," the man corrected, with a scowl. "Why does everyone always forget the _Captain_?"

Elizabeth paid no attention. "Where's the _Black Pearl_?"

Jack narrowed his eyes slightly. "Need to hitch a ride luv?" Then he looked more suspicious. "Wha', you aren't runnin' away, are you?"

"What I'm doing is none of your business," Elizabeth snapped. "Besides, I wouldn't have asked about the _Pearl_ if I didn't want to 'hitch a ride', as you put it."

"Ah, bu' there's nothin' wrong 'bout checkin' in on some ol' friends, is there? 'Sides, who says that I'll let you on my ship? I see no profit in it for me."

Elizabeth said nothing, but she clenched her fists.

"Why would yer wan' to hitch a ride, 'nyways?" He looked around, as if he was searching for something. "An' where's th' whelp?"

Slowly, Elizabeth unclenched her fists. "He's in the army, Jack," she whispered softly, unwilling to give out too much information to the pirate.

The 'pirate' frowned. "So? Where's th' army now?"

Elizabeth didn't answer. _Well, looks like I'll have to go find some other methods of transportation to the colonies._ "Nice meeting you, Jack, but since you won't give me passage, I'll have to find some other way." She turned to leave, but Jack's hand had a firm grip on her elbow.

"Now, who said 'nything 'bout the fact tha' I won't give you passage?" Then he frowned. "Where d'you wan' to go, firstly?"

* * *

"We've found their army!"

The joyful shout echoed through the British encampment. Slowly, Will ducked out of his tent. Outside, a small congregation had already gathered, reveling in the news, and plotting "fool-proof" methods for victory. The camp, lethargic and unmoving just a few minutes ago, was filled with renewed vigor and spirit.

Secretly, Will was nervous about this new development. This news definitely meant an attack. He didn't know what would happen; he was a blacksmith, not a military man, after all. But Will did know one thing. An attack meant a battle; a battle meant open fire; open fire meant casualties; casualties meant death. And death was the last thing Will wanted to think about.

**A/N****: I didn't want to dive into a battle in the second chapter and I wanted to show something with Elizabeth and Jack. Of course, the story doesn't end after the surrender of Burgoyne. But still, I wanted a sort of 'development' chapter. Thanks to everyone who reads this chapter! And I finally reached 1,000 words!**

**Next chapter will probably be about Battle of Freeman's Farm; maybe something aboard the Black Pearl if you guys want it. Please review! And I wasn't sure if I used appropriate vocabulary; Jack is really hard to write, especially.**


	3. Something Happened

Chapter 3

**A/N****: Sorry for the delay! I had test-outs, got my SAT scores, had a school talent show, and so any other things. Plus, I'm trying to start a bash-Clique story as well, so it's going to be a while until I can update again. Also, whenever I write Jack Sparrow's dialogue, I always add in apostrophes and everything. If I'm using too many, PLEASE tell me! In this chapter, I used a character who is technically in the movies, but not used that much. So, yeah. By the way, I'm a Loyalist when it comes to the Revolutionary War. Just for a side note! Thanks for reading, anyways!**

_Disclaimer: You know the drill._

The wind blew a spray of salty water into Elizabeth's face. Standing next to the railing aboard the _Black Pearl_, she wondered how Will was faring. She hoped that he was at least safe; life in the army tended to be worse than life outside, in Port Royal or England. But at least no news of any new battles had reached her, so she hoped that he would be fine. Of course, you could never tell what would happen…and what had happened.

_Fraser_.

That was the general of the "regiment" Will was assigned to. He barely even knew him; Fraser was only mentioned a few times in the camp, and Will had only been recruited recently. But he still knew that it was is duty to fight for his country; therefore, he would follow the orders of the general that he barely knew. His fate depended on that.

There were several good points about this. For one thing, no one expected the colonists would know about the attack, so they expected this battle to be relatively easy. Of course, you could never guess what will happen, and Will hadn't had enough experience to determine what an "easy" battle was.

On the downside, Will's "regiment" was actually more of a "light infantry". If there happened to be any type of counterattack, Fraser's infantry would be forced to retreat; they couldn't hold for that if it came up. It wasn't Will's favorite choice; everything depended on luck. But it would have to do. There wasn't any choice.

" 'e's not comin' jus' because you're starin' in his general d'rection, luv."

Elizabeth spun around, surprised. Jack was leaning on the swaying railing, smirking at her. "What do you care?" she growled.

"Well," the pirate drawled, "I let y' onto my ship, ferr one thing."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Only after I spent about five minutes trying to talk to you."

Jack smirked. "Now, ther's no need t' be getting' angry, is there? Without me, you're gonna be on yer own, luv. An' you don' even know where the whelp is."

Elizabeth gritted her teeth. Ignoring the jab, she grounded out, "And you know where Will is?"

"If I didn', then I wouldn't've said tha' 'n the' firs' place, would I?"

"Where is he, then?"

The pirate frowned, absent mindedly rubbing the "P" branded into his skin. "Well," he started slowly, "If I'm not mistaken, 'e's somewhere 'n Pennsylvania righ' now. There's a large British reg'ment camped there."

Elizabeth's breath caught in her throat. "Really?" she asked, unable to suppress her excitement. "Will's in Pennsylvania?"

Jack smirked at her again. "We aren' in a hurry, luv. Besides, we've other bus'ness to do before." "But we're goin' to your Will," he added quickly, after Elizabeth had fixed him with a steely glare.

With a fierce scowl, she turned tail and headed back to her cabin. "Women," the pirate muttered behind her back. Swerving around, he muttered, "Now where's me rum?"

Will hurried after the rest of the infantry. The dry, rough terrain proved difficult to keep a firm hold on. Dust, scuffed up by the regular's boots, drifted across the land, creating a thin haze about a foot above the ground. It drifted upwards, sometimes catching in the bright red uniforms, sometimes filling their noses and mouths, causing the unlucky soldiers to cough at random intervals.

Looking ahead, he felt slightly relieved to see the terrain continued to stretch out, without any humanoid figures on the horizon. It would unnerve him, to say the least, to see a full colonist "militia" in preparation for the ambush.

Will let his mind wander. He thought back to England, where his house was, where Elizabeth was waiting…

_Elizabeth_. He hoped that she was safe; he didn't want her going off and doing something irrational. It would be too dangerous out here, in the battlegrounds of the colonies. Knowing Elizabeth, she probably had already done something irrational. That was just Elizabeth. But hopefully, she hadn't landed herself into any more trouble.

"My Lord."

Ammand the Corsair turned around, facing his subject. "What is it?"

"Jack Sparrow has sent to inform you that he will be coming to pay his debt soon."

"Ah, yes." Jack Sparrow. He owed Ammand something, and hadn't paid in quite a while. Sparrow was notorious for not repaying debts. That was the reason Ammand had only given Sparrow a smaller, not quite so valuable trinket. He knew that it was easy enough for Sparrow to secure a wench; he had quite a few too many already. Therefore, the Persian Pirate Lord decided to take advantage of his situation. Sparrow still hadn't paid his debt. Until now.

"Thank you. Tell him," the Pirate Lord stroked one of the many rings on his fingers, "that he will be very welcome when he arrives."

Slowly, drums began to sound in the distance. Alerted, Will glanced around, squinting at the horizon for any hint for the source of the sound. Slowly, over a great distance, a row of soldiers appeared. Then behind it, anther row.

The people carried muskets, rifles, and other assorted weapons. Some rode on horseback; some, like him, walked on foot. Tensing slightly, he gripped his musket tighter. The rows of people continued, almost never-ending to his eyes. One thing clicked in his frozen mind. _He would have to fight_.

**A/N****: YAY!!!! Haha. I'm not sure if that counts as a cliffie. ******** YAHOOOO!!!**


	4. War and Treachery

Chapter 4

**]A/N****: Okay. This is the first battle scene I have ever written. It's going to be really horrible, but hopefully I get the main idea across. And I made Jack be kind of selfish, because that's how I picture him. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. By the way, I enabled anonymous reviews again. If anyone actually cares about that. :-)**

_Disclaimer: AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!_

In his cabin, Captain Jack Sparrow was scribbling frantically. His thanks to the Persian Pirate Lord wasn't necessary, but courtesy demanded it. Ammand would definitely receive him with courtesy. After all, Pirate Lords would welcome anyone who would give them something. He wasn't quite so sure on how the bonny lass would receive him. _She defin't'ly won't be happy_, he decided. But to the pirate, no one else's opinion mattered. All he cared was that he could seize this opportunity to repay an almost forgotten debt.

He got up drunkenly from his chair, peering into his empty rum bottle hopefully. When he saw none of the dark liquid, he growled menacingly, and stumbled out of his cabin onto the deck.

It was relatively quiet. Gibbs was presenting a half-hearted lookout from the nest, but the Pearl was sailing leisurely in the wind, heading for the American colonies. There didn't seem to be anything wrong about that. But Jack had a different destination in mind.

"Gibbs," he called, stumbling toward him.

"Aye, cap'n?"

"Turn this ship 'round, and head for Asia."

His voice provided no explanation, only a firm order. "Sir?"

"Turn this ship 'round, and head for Asia," the Captain commanded again, a hint of impatience in his voice.

"If I may inquire, sir, why?"

Sparrow turned around, staggering slightly. "What??"

"Why?"

The pirate seemed to think for a minute. Heading back toward Gibbs, he waved his hand around aimlessly as he spoke. "I 'ave my reasons."

Still confused, Gibbs decided not to ask any more questions. _Better to leave the subject alone_, he reflected _He won't give anything else out, if he doesn't want to_. "Do you have a specific location that we should head for?"

Sparrow considered. "Why don' we jus' 'ead for Persia. Or jus' it's gen'ral direction," he decided, with a note of finality in his voice.

* * *

Elizabeth Turner was pacing in her cabin. To her, it was taking an eternity to arrive at the Americas. Whenever she had the chance, she would constantly bug Jack about their arrival time. That probably was the reason why he was avoiding her at the moment. But Elizabeth still persistently bugged him, and now she had decided to expand her search to include more of the crewmembers. Therefore, most of the pirates avoided her. That didn't bother Elizabeth much, except that now she was even more clueless about when she could get to the colonies, and therefore, Will.

Frustrated, she threw herself down on her bed-like structure. Immediately, it protested the sudden, unexpected weight. Ignoring the creaks, she got back up, and looked out the window, hoping beyond hope that land would be in sight. It wasn't.

Elizabeth turned around again, focusing her attention somewhere else. But if she had stayed in front of the window a little longer and paid more attention to the dull scenery, she would have realized that the Pearl had changed from its original course.

* * *

Upon closer inspection, there actually weren't that many people in the "army" that had greeted them. They didn't seem to outnumber Fraser's infantry by that much, actually. But Will knew that you shouldn't always judge on appearance alone. That lesson had been taught the hard way before, and he wasn't eager to have it be taught again.

Fraser was, apparently, slightly miffed by this unexpected response. In an undertone, he muttered, "Don't shoot until they shoot first." Will presumed, by military standards, that Fraser expected the opposing side to hold their fire as well as the British were, at the moment. But the opposing side didn't.

Almost immediately Fraser had spoken, a volley of bullets rained on the unsuspecting British troops. The plain, which had been peaceful only a few seconds before, was now filled with noise. Dying men screamed as bullets pierced their various body parts. The more jittery survivors cried out in shock, and the dry, barren ground was slowly soaked with dark red.

A man in front of Will collapsed right on top of him, a clean hole shot straight through his chest. The former blacksmith gasped in shock as the man slumped, sliding down onto the ground to join his fellow dead bodies, leaving a trail of blood on Will. He barely made out the cries of, "Retreat! Retreat!" as he stumbled back, away from the dead body, away from the range of the riflemen. Blood from the dead man coated the front of his shirt, staining the shirt, causing it to stick to his chest.

Will tripped over something, and fell. Struggling back to his feet, he looked back, and realized that he'd tripped over another soldier. The soldier was extremely young, in his early twenties or so. At first glance, he seemed dead to Will. But when he bent over slightly, he realized that blood was still flowing out of the fresh wound on the younger man's shoulder.

He glanced up. The riflemen were swarming over the plain. If Will decided to stay and help the injured soldier, he would probably be killed, or captured. He looked back down at the young man lying in front of him, and lifted him gently up.

Then, chaos ensued.

* * *

Surveying the sea calmly, Jack Sparrow looked out. He estimated that, seeing the Pearl's proximity to the colonies, it would take quite a while to reach Asia. The Corsair wouldn't mind too much if Sparrow was delayed. After all, he held the Persian's soon-to-be concubine.

He only felt a small twinge of guilt about trading Elizabeth. After all, he wouldn't have to go back to the colonies and face the whelp. Being a pirate, he could go anywhere, as long as the Pearl could get there.

**A/N****: Hope that was good! Thanks for reading! Please don't get all worked up about Jack's attitudes; that's just how my sister and I think of him.**


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